It's The "Center" Of Attention
Nov/Dec '07 Issue (vol 15, num 6)
Texas Solving Problems Facing Sport Fishing Industry
It’s one thing to ponder a problem. It’s something else to actually do something about it.
Go very deep into the sports fishing industry these days and you’ll hear talk about shrinking license sales, lack of funding and the need to build interest in fishing among upcoming generations.
These problems have caused concern all the way across this great country. They’ve heard about them in Texas just as we have elsewhere, but there’s a difference. Down there in the Lone Star State they’ve actually done something about it.
Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center
If you’ve kicked around Texas much you may have heard of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s time you did. The Center is located near the community of Athens about 75 miles east of Dallas. If there’s a similar facility in the United States as well laid out and as well operated as the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, I’ve not seen it. It’s a fascinating operation that in some respects resembles a museum almost as much as it does a fish rearing facility. 
If your travels take you into the Athens area by all means make time to tour the Center. The Center is owned and operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It covers 106 acres and cost around $18 million to construct.
Because it’s an agency of the state, the Center is tax-exempt and eligible to receive charitable donations. I ask you to remember the sentence you just read for a reason. The Center opened in 1996 and has already been visited by more than 300,000 people. Some thirty-three percent of those visitors were school-age children.
The Center has a 300,000-gallon aquarium and is set up to so kids can learn about things like aquatic habitat, wetlands and wildlife conservation. Part of the learning is a “hands on” experience. The youngsters have an opportunity to actually fish in the Center’s 1.5 acre pond designed for that purpose. Rods, reels and bait are provided at no charge.
There’s more. Get into a discussion of Texas bass fishing and sooner or later someone is going to mention the “ShareLunker” program the state conducts. Texas anglers have the opportunity to take part in the program. If they boat a fish of thirteen pounds or more they can turn it over to the Fisheries Center.
These fish are held at the Center in special tanks. Their eggs are used in the state’s bass rearing program. Visitors to the Center get to see exactly how it’s done. If you’ve ever wanted to eyeball a largemouth bass of thirteen pounds or more, here’s your chance to do it. Let’s face it. Most of us will never see a bass of that size at the end of our line. The Texas Fisheries Center has the world’s largest collection right there in its Athens facility.
Again, if you’re down Texas way, put the Center on your schedule. Your whole family will love it. It’s a fascinating experience and you’ll come away with a far better understanding about what it takes to maintain and foster interest in freshwater fishing.
Richard M. Hart/Johnny Morris Conservation Center
Today there’s a brand new facility out there at the Texas Fisheries Center. It’s sort of a center within a center. It’s called the Richard M. Hart/Johnny Morris Conservation. Its purpose, among other things, is to facilitate the education and interest of upcoming generations of Texas anglers. The construction of that new facility is a story that takes some telling, and there are darn good reasons for the story to be told.
One of the greatest things about running around the world with a fishing rod in one hand and a camera in the other is the interesting people you meet along the way. I’ve had that experience often over the past half century of fishing and writing about it. It happened again this spring when my travels took me to Texas and I got my first look at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
One of the men I met was Richard Hart. A most interesting and likeable gentleman with numerous accomplishments to his credit, Hart is one bass fishing nut. “If I’m not where I can get out bass fishing regularly,” he says, “I might go into shock!”
There’s no immediate danger of that happening. Richard, you see, is a longtime member of a club that has four private lakes in East Texas. He’s usually on one or another of those lakes each week. He has caught more bass and crappie than most of the pros.
Now that’s saying a mouthful, but so help me I’m telling it like it is. Go fishing with Hart and you’re sure to see what I mean. I had the extreme good fortune to do just that last April.
So how did I wind up getting a chance to go fishing with him? Part of the answer to that question involves those problems now facing the sports fishing industry as a whole.
Hart’s intense interest and efforts on behalf of the Texas State Freshwater Fisheries Center is legendary. You’ll recall I mentioned earlier that the Texas Fisheries Center is tax exempt and eligible to receive charitable contributions. Right here is where Richard Hart comes into the picture big time. His involvement is one of the primary reasons that new facility at the Fisheries Center exists today.
Hart and his fellow Texans have come up with plans and funds for the future of fishing. They’ve laid out a pattern for more states to follow. Georgia and others are planning to do just that.
Chances are you’ve heard that it’s not uncommon for folks from Texas to do a bit of boasting about what goes on in the Lone Star State.
Maybe so, but take my word for it friends, if that bragging has to do with the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center---guess again. What might sound like a fairy tale is right there for all to see.
As I mentioned in part one of this story in the July/August of Inside Line, today there’s a brand new building at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. This new facility was constructed at a cost in excess of $2 million. That construction didn’t cost the State of Texas a dime. 
My friend Richard Hart, the man I promised to tell more about in part one, provided much of the inspiration for the new building project. Hart, who lives in Dallas, has had an ongoing interest in the Texas Fisheries Center since its inception. His interest, along with the time, energy and effort he has devoted to it, is why our trails crossed in the first place.
The new facility at the Center is named the Richard M. Hart/Johnny Morris Conservation Center. There’s ample justification for the new building to carry the names it has been given. Anybody who knows a bass from his bellybutton comes on point when the name Johnny Morris is mentioned. Morris, of course, is the founder of Bass Pro Shops.
Morris believes in giving back to the industry that gave him the success he’s enjoyed with Bass Pro Shops. When Hart and some of his associates started talking about the possibility of constructing a Conservation Center within the Fisheries Center, Johnny Morris came up with a challenge. Morris told the Texans he’d donate $650,000 toward the construction of the facility if they could come up with an equal amount. Run a challenge like that past a guy like Richard Hart and he’s going to grab it and run like a starving 10-pounder latching onto a Senko.
That’s in part why I said that Richard Hart is a special kind of man. He provides positive proof that what one man can only imagine, another man can actually do. I don’t have an accounting of the hours he spent leading the effort to come up with the dollars necessary to fund the Conservation Center construction. It has to have been a bunch.
“Allen Forshage and I actually undertook the funding of the new Conservation Center in 2002,” Hart says. “We had previously teamed up to obtain funding for a Wetlands Trail project for the Freshwater Fisheries Center. Once we completed the Wetlands Trail project, we discussed what else was needed to enhance the experience for visiting school children. This resulted in the idea for a separate classroom building.”
I’m convinced Richard Hart believes there is much truth in thinking that the future belongs to those who simply plan and prepare for it. His first step was to form a group he called “Schooling for Bass.” The group was to be part of the Friends of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center organization. Three benefit banquets were staged, each of which offered raffle prizes and items for auction.
Hart and his cohorts didn’t just equal the $650,000 Johnny Morris challenge, they roared on by it. The total raised from all sources was $2.2 million. That’s how the new 14,000-square foot featuring the very latest in educational tools and features came to be.
Remember what I said about Richard Hart planning for the future? Here’s a portion of the “Vision Statement” he came up with for the new Conservation Center that bears his name: “To provide a classroom setting for schoolchildren to learn and experience from a variety of instructors about our wetlands, waterways, hunting and fishing and other outdoor related subjects.”
Hart’s plan envisioned providing teachers with facilities and resources not normally available. It would also strive to become a place to develop a national forum for bass fishing subjects. Finally, along with the facilities of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center already in place, its objective was also to become a unique cohesive force for the sports fishing industry.
Today that building is no longer simply an objective---it actually exists and it didn’t cost the State of Texas a dime. Except for the $650,000 donated by Johnny Morris and his Bass Pro Shops, the remainder of the more than $2 million bucks the project cost came by way of charitable contributions.
The Texans decided they wanted to stage a program of dedication when the new Conservation Center was finished and ready for occupancy. The program was held in mid-April and that’s where I entered the picture.
Bruce Holt, the head man of G.Loomis Rods, has worked with Richard Hart and his friends for years. G.Loomis has donated rods that the Texans have used in some of the programs to aid Texas freshwater fisheries. Bruce and Richard got their heads together to help line up entertainment for the Conservation Center dedication. I was asked if I’d do a couple of casting exhibitions as a part of the dedication activities.
I was told that following the dedication of the Conservation Center I’d have a chance to fish with Richard on one or another of those East Texas lakes he knows so well. As it turned out, I was a guest of Richard and his gracious wife, Gloria, all the time I was in Texas.
I have good memories of being a part of the dedication events. It was a great experience. Those three days I spent playing dirty tricks on the bass in those East Texas lakes ranks right up there with some of the best I’ve experienced in a lifetime of bass fishing.
I expect I was probably the only person on hand for the dedication who has had the good 
fortune to share a bass boat with both of the men for whom the new Conservation Center is named.
I shared a boat with Johnny Morris one day while he was competing in the one of the early Bassmaster Classics staged on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville way back in the 1970s. If the fishing had been half as good for Johnny that day on Guntersville as I enjoyed while I was out with Richard Hart, Johnny would have won that Lake Guntersville Classic hands down.
My springtime experience in Texas shares a special spot in my lifetime of fishing memories. I’d like to get another look at that Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. There is much to see and learn there.
As I’ve said several times in these past two Inside Line features, if you get into the Lone Star State give it top priority on your list of places to go and things to see. It’s a wondrous experience you and your family won’t soon forget.
I sincerely hope leaders of the sports fishing industry from all over this wonderful country will do the same.